Saturday, May 26, 2018

No goals, no spine, no spit, no fire TFC 0 FCDallas flipfloppin 1

I write on the morning after... my ire slightly cooled. Slightly...

I understand that TFC faces a huge challenge to duplicate or even come close to their wonder season of 2017.

I understand that TFC have had that huge challenge multiplied by the early season demands of playing in the CCL. They were a penalty kick or two, a penalty save or two away from winning the Champion's League.

I understand that TFC have a continuing injury problem - Moor, Morrow, Altidore are the biggest names that come to mind, but plenty more. Chris Mavinga went off injured last night, so it continues.

But for heaven's sake, what the hell is happening here? What are we witnessing? This has suddenly (or over the course of April and May home games) become a team with no sting AND no spine.

Toronto does not have the ability to score and honestly I am not surprised. The offensive strategy is to feed it to Giovinco and hope he scores a miracle goal or shuffle the ball around and mostly stand still.
Has Michael Bradley signed a pledge to never, ever take a shot at net? Victor Vazquez played a substandard game as did Osorio. Ryan Telfer and Liam Fraser both contributed, but having those two rookies be your top two passing and crossing contributors means there are a lot of passengers around them.
I honestly want a month or two break from watching Hamilton and/or Ricketts have limited impact on play. It is a good thing that the June schedule puts TFC on the road most of the time. I feel that TFC needs a striker for a summer signing and possibly a trade to just send a message. No score = not needed.

As to the spit and spine lacking.... it started with the Seba Giovinco pk. Before the shot was taken the Dallas keeper Gonzalez was allowed to stand toe to toe with the penalty taker. Ref? Should have been the first question and if seconds later no action EVERY TFC player should have been in there. I have never seen a keeper be allowed to mess with a penalty taker that way. He proceeded to stall and go back in stages.
The best move of the night was that Ryan Telfer fouled the keeper and earned a yellow first chance he got. Did you notice that the Dallas players all massed around their keeper to protect him after the contact?
The second half was a drama fest. TFC had fewer and fewer attacking ideas and Dallas had fewer and fewer players able to keep to their feet. We saw this type of crap from Colorado last summer and TFC get out their nice guy attitudes and end up with their faces rubbed in it.Auro Jr caught a Dallas player in the corner below me shinguard to shinguard and the Dallas player went down like he had been amputated. Drew the foul and then did the miracle recovery. Nobody went over and fouled the bugger right then and there. Hey ref he faked it over there.....but, oh look by god damn, he is injured now. Tell the Dallas players stay on your feet and play, you are in Toronto. Hurt somebody, stand up to their tactics, BE LESS THAN NICE. Show some spit, some spine, some fire. Show something other than dither, pass back and hope that static offense is going to magically have the other team falter. If you can’t win pretty WIN UGLY. ArghhhhhhNice works when you win, nice works when you score. TFC are faltering and folding and fading. Too many players are in a fuzzy funk. God, we miss Benoit Cheyrou.Bezbatchenko has to step in with a summer trade and a signing. Vanney and Fraser have to smarten up and either find the offensive, creative spark or pray daily for a healthy return of Morrow and Altidore. Or hire an offensive specialist coach. Or just somebody who loses their temper from time to time. I am available, up in section 220. You will spot me easily, the guy with the steam rising from his cranium.It is almost unimaginable in recent memory to see a visiting team arrive with the notion that scoring a single goal was enough to defeat TFC in Toronto. Unimaginable.